In a fingerprint authentication apparatus, light from a light source illuminates a finger touching a scan glass surface. Light reflected by this finger is captured by an image pickup device as a fingerprint image. Then, a fingerprint authentication processing is performed by collating a captured fingerprint image with a fingerprint image registered in previously. An individual is identified by this fingerprint authentication processing.
The buildup security of an information processing apparatus attracts the attention today. For this reason, an introduction of the fingerprint authentication apparatus into the information processing apparatus has been performed extensively. And the fingerprint authentication apparatus which can perform the authenticating processing with a high speed and a high accuracy is required, because the fingerprint authentication apparatus is used by large number peoples.
However, the fingerprint authentication apparatus of the related art has several problems as follows.
One problem is that authentication accuracy is low. That is, in the fingerprint authentication apparatus, dirt, sebum, or the like on a finger adheres to the scan glass surface because it makes a finger touches the scan glass surface directly. For this reason, the authentication accuracy becomes low.
Another problem is that the scan glass surface is not sanitary. That is, in the fingerprint authentication apparatus, since many people's finger touches the scan glass surface directly, the dirt or the like of other people's finger may adhere. Therefore, it is not sanitary.
In order to solve such problems, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 1992-088586 proposes a fingerprint input apparatus equipped with a light source, a light guiding means, an image pickup means and a covering means.
This light guiding means has a contact surface which a finger touches and illuminates light to the finger touching this contact surface.
The image pickup means captures reflected light from the finger. That is, because light from the light source is reflected by the finger touching the contact surface, the image pickup means captures this reflected light as the fingerprint image.
The covering means opens and closes this contact surface according to the motion of the finger which touches the contact surface or to separate the finger from the contact surface. That is, the covering means exposes the contact surface when making the finger touch the contact surface, and covers the contact surface when separating the finger from the contact surface.
Further, a cleaner is equipped on the face of the covering means facing the contact surface. The cleaner cleans the contact surface when the covering means moves according to the movement of the finger. Therefore, since adhesion of the dust and sebum to the contact surface decreases and a scratch becomes difficult to be attached to the contact surface compared with the structure which the contact surface always exposes, the authentication accuracy improves.
Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-196572 discloses a configuration which adopts a rack-and-pinion system to drive an ejector pin for ejecting injection-molded pieces from a fixed die. Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-Open No. Hei 1-116923 discloses a cassette cleaner of a video cartridge recorder.
Although this Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-196572 and Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-Open No. Hei 1-11692 are completely different from a cleaning device for a fingerprint authentication apparatus in a technical field, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 1992-088586 belongs to the same technical field as a cleaning device for a fingerprint authentication apparatus.
However, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 1992-088586, there is a problem that enough cleaning cannot be performed, because the cleaning of the contact surface is performed according to the movement of the inserted finger when fingerprint authentication is performed.